LOVING ONE ANOTHER

One of the greatest blessing that comes with our call is the opportunity to meet and serve with the other senior missionaries both here in Frankfurt (in the Europe Area Office) and with the Welfare/Humanitarian couples serving in various countries of Central & Southeast Europe and Cape Verde.  These are great individuals who are striving to do God’s will by serving their fellowmen.

It would be misleading to represent our situation as perfect or that all our interactions with our fellow missionaries are without challenges.  We are all human, imperfect beings struggling to fulfill our missionary callings.  We all have our own personalities and idiosyncrasies.  It appears that part of God’s purpose in putting us here on earth is to give us the opportunity to learn how to get along with one another, to learn how to work productively and peaceably together.  The longer I live the more I am convinced that achieving the second goal is more important than the first.

Each month Eileen prepares a newsletter containing a short article from each of our Welfare/Humanitarian couples describing what they are working on.  This newsletter goes out to scores of people, both here in Europe and Church Headquarters in Utah.  This month an experience related by a senior sister missionary serving in Sicily, struck us as particularly poignant.  We have included it below.

"This month we had the sobering and heart wrenching experience of volunteering with MEDU (funded by LDS Charities) at a refugee disembarking and inside the Hotspot at Pozzallo. This was an Italian Coast Guard rescue of 392 men, women, and children. Before disembarking begins, the medical teams get organized in the triage tent. Giulia, MEDU doctor, had her brown leather medical bag, plastic gloves shoved in back jean pocket and face mask just around her neck. We watched as Giulia knelt by patient after patient. Smiling, holding their hands, comforting and reassuring them. She wants their first interaction in Italy to be kind and welcoming. The doctors and nurses somehow moved smoothly from patient to patient. The smell of human sickness, suffering, and sweat was over powering.

"The brutal heat made it very physically demanding for everyone. The refugees sit on the ship deck for hours under the sun while doctors in full hazmat suits assess medical needs. Critical cases and pregnant women are disembarked first and brought right to the medical area. Some are loaded onto stretchers and into waiting ambulances to go to hospital. Finally, the others are allowed off the ship, one at a time. They are photographed and given a wristband with a number, Flip Flops and a water bottle. Buses transport them to the nearby Hotspot.  The MEDU team keeps track of torture cases, children, critical medical cases, and those in need of psychological counseling. The refugees all look dazed, bewildered and exhausted.

"The Hotspot is a gigantic warehouse-type building inside the port, fenced in and heavily guarded. The refugees line up to be checked for scabies, fingerprinted, and given an initial entry interview. They each receive a large backpack with clothes, food, and water. There is an area with sinks, showers, bathrooms. The huge main room has rows and rows of blue metal bunkbeds and also mattresses covering a large section of the floor. The MEDU team continues to assess the most vulnerable people, and the psychologists and cultural mediators spend individual time with them. Giulia goes nonstop to check on the sick and injured. The MEDU team coordinator handed me a scrawny, frightened 8 month old baby whose mother was at hospital and father was not functioning. It was a tender blessing to be able to comfort, feed, and hold that baby boy that first night. On the second day in the Hotspot, we talked with individuals, found answers to their questions, and recorded their stories for MEDU. These people step off that ship with nothing. They have no idea what the future holds. So far in August, MEDU has assisted three disembarkings and a total of 530 refugees at this one dock in Sicily."

Sister missionary with refugee baby

We went hiking on Saturday with a woman from our office.  Gabi is 78 years old and in wonderful physical condition and rides her bike or hikes  through this forest near her home.

Gabi invited us over for homemade rolls at her home after our hike

Missionary friends hiking through the forest

Eileen borrowed Gabi's bike and did a little bike riding

WEATHERING THE STORMS OF LIFE

This past week has had been somewhat stressful, both on the work side of things and on the home front.  I (Eileen) will share a few of the good things which happened this week.

We have some new technology missionaries in Frankfurt. Elder and Sister van Hoff arrived just a few months ago. They have taken it upon themselves to try and help senior missionaries have a greater understanding of computer software programs. This past week Russell and I attended an intermediate class for Word.  This was one of several classes the van Hoffs have presented.  The training was very helpful for me.  I use the computer a lot in my calling, however just because I use it does not mean that I am good at it.  I am hoping to be able to get a few more classes from the van Hoffs before our release.

Russell, Eileen and Sister Swenson in computer class

Elder and Sister van Hoff during computer class

I have spent a great deal of time trying to procure and ship out an order of “LDS Charities” shirts which our couples could use when going to projects in the field. Unfortunately, the sizes of the shirts we first received were so inaccurate that many of the shirts could only be worn by my adolescent grandchildren. A few weeks ago Constanza sent out some measuring tapes to all of our couples and asked for their measurements. Our new administrative assistant, Jennifer, later compared those measurements with the shirt sizes and then we finally had our revised shirt order come in this week. Jennifer has categorized the shirts and is ready to send them out. It has taken several months, however I am hoping they finally will work for our couples.

Shirts ready for delivery

The weather here in Frankfurt has been very pleasant lately. It has seemed quite enjoyable compared with the countries we have visited with temperatures well over 100 degree Fahrenheit.   We have heard from several of our humanitarian couples that temperatures in their respective countries have reached record highs. In Rome, water is being rationed as Italy has suffered its driest spring for 60 years. Elder and Sister Herway have collected water in buckets for usage when their water is turned off. 

In our office we have a large panel of windows overlooking the church and facing downtown Frankfurt.  This past Tuesday a violent storm rolled into Frankfurt. Several of us gathered to look out the windows as the skies became dark within just a few minutes.  Torrential rain and gale force winds forced trains to be delayed and flights out of the Frankfurt airport to be cancelled.  We usually keep our windows at home cracked for air circulation. We and other missionaries went home to wet apartments.  The next morning as we walked to the gym we saw sidewalks covered with broken branches from trees blown down during the storm.  We were grateful for the refuge of the office building and the protection we were offered.  Perhaps this storm can be analogous to life. Elder M. Russell Ballard has said, we all need a refuge from the storm where we can remove ourselves from distractions of life.  One of the best places to connect with the Spirit is in the temple - the house of God.

Lightening in Frankfurt (photo taken by Michael Seebooth)

Trees downed behind our apartment building

Friday and Saturday we went to the Freiberg temple with the Proctors. Elder and Sister Proctor have been serving as our zone leaders and will be released from their mission just a few weeks after us.  I have gained a much greater appreciation for temple attendance after having served in Frankfurt.  As Elder Ballard said, it is our refuge from the storms of life. We are grateful for the ability we have to reconnect with our Heavenly Father through temple attendance. 

Freiberg temple

MISSIONARIES IN MACEDONIA

This week has been both busy and, as the British would say, interesting.  It seems like obstacles, either with our work here in Europe or with family back home,  that we can anticipate and prepare for usually turn out OK in the end.  But those challenges which are unexpected and take us by surprise seems to prove to be the greater challenge.

Each Wednesday at noon the senior missionaries in the Area office get together and study the Book of Mormon for an hour.  We each take turns leading the discussion and this week it was Eileen’s turn.  Having just finished the Book of Mormon last week, Eileen’s assigned topic was the Introduction and first four chapters of 1^st Nephi.  We can usually count on quite a bit of participation from the group so the instructor has to pick just a few major points within the assigned chapters to focus on.  Although Eileen had us read several scriptures and quotes it was the last which generated the most discussion.  In 1^st Nephi 1:20, Nephi tells us that, “the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith . . .”  Eileen pointed out that although Nephi was beset with problems that he was still able to see the Lord’s hand in his daily life.  The ability to see God’s hand in our lives is indeed a great blessing of comfort as we face the trials of this life.

Wednesday evening we flew to Skopje Macedonia, landing around midnight.  On the drive into the city we could see a large cross lit up on a nearby hill.  For three full days we were able to work with Elder Robert and Sister Leeann Olson, training on various Welfare related subjects.  From our work the week before we were able to ascertain that the Welfare Department provided computer they had did not work properly, so we were able to have the IT Department format a new one which we tested and then took with us to Macedonia for the Olson couple to use.  During past training visits a significant amount of time has been spent just getting the computers to work properly.  Eileen did not want a repeat of our prior week’s experience in Serbia.  We felt comfortable that the new computer we were taking down would allow us to avoid that happening.  We were prepared and indeed that was not an issue this week.  What we did not anticipate was that the internet connection in the the couple’s house did not work – it stopped working just Wednesday evening.  Most of Thursday was spent trying to get the modem and internet working.  It was not until Friday around noon that internet service was restored after a technician came to the house.  It is the unexpected things that get to you. However, it was a blessing how fast we were able to complete the Humanitarian computer and financial training.  In the end everything worked out fine.  It was a pleasure to get to know and work with Elder and Sister Olson.

Skope airport a little after midnight.   In Macedonia they use the Cyrillic alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet

Eileen and Sister Olson trying to get the internet working

Rumor has it that President Russell Nelson sat in this rocking chair when he visited Macedonia to dedicate the land to the preaching of the gospel

Skopje is the land of the statues. After a long day at the apartment we took a walk around the town

Alexander the Great is a big deal in Macedonia. It seems like all sorts of statues are around depicting his conquering spirit.

Visiting with SOS, a potential future partner.  This group works with at risk children and families with the hope that they can strengthen the family enough that the family won't be torn apart.

A very nice shoe shine for Elder Olson for $4

Mother Theresa was born in Skopje, this is where her house was before it was devastated in an earthquake

Mother Theresa

We took a gondola ride to the top of a mountain, it was over 100 degrees out with 45% humidity

This cross is one of the largest in Europe and is what we saw lit up the night we arrived

TENDER MERCIES IN SERBIA

We spent this last week in Serbia working with Elder John and Sister Cathie Swendsen.  Other than it being extremely hot (the daytime temperatures were over 100 degrees with high humidity), we had a wonderful time getting to know our new couple from Calgary, Canada.  During our visit we not only had the opportunity to train them on the typical subjects (computer programs, operational & project finances, and how to organize good humanitarian projects), we were also able to go see a water project that was in process of construction and to introduce them to an NGO (SOS) and visit two of their offices in Belgrade and Nis.  Although most of our work is of a rather temporal nature, I (Russell) would like to relate three instances where we experienced God’s help in our work this week.

The Healys and the Swendsens 

Meeting with SOS in Belgrade

Water filtration system

Site for the water tank, abandoned Russian built factory in background

Contractor explaining water project to Eileen

The first thing we work on with a new couple is making sure their Welfare Department provided computer, scanner/printer, phone, and debit card are working appropriately.  We do this first because not only do the other subjects we teach rely upon them working properly, but also because this can often take the longest.  Eileen has truly become something of an IT expert; a job she is looking forward to retiring from in two months!  We allocate half a day for this part of our training.  Eileen worked on this from Monday afternoon until Wednesday.  She was on the phone with the Global Service Center (GSC) in SLC twice and in contact with our IT Department in Frankfurt several times.  The GSC night-shift crew now recognize my wife’s voice when she calls.  On Tuesday afternoon we were all pretty frustrated at our lack of progress on getting the computer to work right.  The IT person from Frankfurt who had been working on the computer remotely for several hours, finally gave up and told us to just bring it back with us to Frankfurt.  Elder Swendsen suggested that we call the GSC one more time.  Within an hour they (Eileen and the GSC) had the computer working properly.  We considered it a minor miracle.

Russell and Elder Swendsen on the computer

Nis is the second largest city in Serbia and about a three-and-a-half hour drive south of Belgrade.  While visiting the office of SOS there we parked the car on the street next to a parking sign.  Now the words on the sign were written in Serbian (both Latin and Cyrillic) but the big “P” on the blue sign clearly identified it as a parking sign.  As we walked back from the meeting I saw something that looked like a dump-truck next to the car.  Elder Swendsen must have been able to see better than I because he immediately began running to the car.  It was no dump-truck but a tow-truck and it was just ready to raise our vehicle off the ground!  Evidently we had parked on the wrong side of the parking sign.  Even though they didn’t speak English, Elder Swendsen was able to get them to unhook the car and let us drive away.  Had we been just a few minutes later we would have been without a car.  Finding where the car would have been taken and getting a car out of the impound lot on a Friday afternoon would have been almost impossible.  I feel it was not just coincidence that we arrived just in time.

When we lived in Belgium, Vijay and I home taught a father and his two teen-age sons.  They were from Nis, Serbia.  While in Belgium, the father (Alia Makic) was diagnosed with cancer and died during the summer of the year 2000.  Eileen and I helped get his body back to Serbia so that he could be buried next to his wife who had died several years earlier. We very much wanted to see his final resting place in Serbia.  Alia’s son Remzi, who is now married and living in Utah County, emailed me directions of how to find the grave.  As we were walking up the path toward where the grave was, a man who worked in the graveyard asked us who we were looking for.  He didn’t speak much English but he recognized the name Alia Makic.  He said, “I am Makic.”  He took us right to the grave and also tried to explain who he was.  Our best guess is that he is the son of Alia’s wife (Emma)’s brother – so a cousin of Remzi.  Meeting him and getting to see Alia’s final resting spot were in deed “a tender mercy of the Lord.”

In each of these three cases it seems God required us to do all we could to get the computer working, meet the NGO and visit/find Alia’s grave.  But then he stepped in to help us get the computer working, not lose the car in a city none of us had ever been before, and to meet a relative of Alia.  The older I get the more I am convinced that God is involved in the details of our lives.  It is just a question of if we are willing to accept His help/counsel and be humble enough to see His handiwork.

Remzedin, Alia, Alit, Eileen and Russell in Belgium 2000, This was taken on Alia's baptism day

Alia's relative at the gravesite, the pattern on the grave is a mosaic done out of small stones

Eileen and Russell in front of private pavillon where Alia and Emma are buried

This was the road leading up to the pavilion on the left. I am not sure we would have ever found it had we not met the Makic's relative

This grave site was behind the pavilion. It is Alia's mother and father

This restaurant is 200 years old. It is called the "?" (that is actually its name)

These beautiful flowers were at a restaurant in the Bohemian quarter

Overlooking the Danube in Belgrade